Now accessible online courtesy of Troy Public Library and New York State Historic Newspapers, the first printing of "Lines Written after a Snow-Storm" by Clement C. Moore.
Untitled and unsigned, this poem appeared in the Troy Sentinel on February 20, 1824, almost two months after the anonymous first printing of Moore's "Account of A Visit from St. Nicholas" on December 23, 1823. The two poems may have been composed around the same time. There was in fact a snowstorm in New York City on Saturday, December 21, 1822, a few days before Christmas. The speaker in both poems is a father with his "children" nearby (asleep in "Visit" while sugarplum visions "danc'd in their heads"; awake in "Lines" while snowflakes "dance upon the air"). Significant verbal parallels with "Visit" include the shared beds/heads
rhyme, the simile with the trigram "as the snow," as well as forms of the words children, dance, vision, and winter's. Presumably the person or persons (Harriet Butler and Sarah Sackett, according to different reports) who furnished editor Orville L. Holley with a copy of Moore's "Visit from St. Nicholas" also provided Moore's lovely little snow poem. In the 1844 volume Poems by Clement C. Moore it appears on pages 80-82 under the title, "Lines / Written after a Snow-Storm."
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| Troy Sentinel - February 20, 1824 Troy Public Library via NYS Historic Newspapers |
FOR THE TROY SENTINEL.
Come dearest children look around,
And see how soft and light
The silent snow has clad the ground,
In robes of purest white.
The trees are deck'd by fairy hands,
Nor need their native green;
And every breeze now seems to stand,
All hush'd, to view the scene.
You wonder how these snows were made
That dance upon the air;
As if from purer worlds they stray'd,
So lovely and so fair.
Perhaps they are the summer flowers,
In northern stars that bloom;
Wafted away from ivy bowers,
To cheer our winter's gloom.
Perhaps they are feathers of a race
Of birds, that live away
In some cold wintry place,
Far from the sun's warm ray.
And clouds perhaps are downy beds,
On which the winds repose;
Who, when they move their slumbering heads,
Shake down the feathery snows.
But see, my dearlings, while we stay
And gaze with such delight,
The fairy scene now fades away,
And mocks our raptur'd sight.
And let this fleeting vision teach
A truth you soon must know —
That all the joys we here can reach,
Are transient as the snow.
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| New York Evening Post - December 23, 1822 via GenealogyBank |
Come dearest children [1844: children dear, and] look around, [1844: semicolon],
And see [1844: Behold] how soft and light
The silent snow has clad the ground, [1844: end comma deleted]
In robes of purest white.
The trees are [1844: seem] deck'd by fairy hands [1844: hand],
Nor need their native green;
And every breeze now seems [1844:nowappears] to stand,
All hush'd, to view the scene.
You wonder how these [1844: the] snows were made
That dance upon the air; [1844: end comma]
As if from purer worlds they stray'd,
So lovely [1844: lightly] and so fair.
Perhaps they are the summer flowers, [1844: end comma deleted]
In northern stars that bloom; [1844: end comma]
Wafted away from ivy bowers [1844: icy bowers], [1844: end comma deleted]
To cheer our winter's gloom.
Perhaps they are [1844: they're] feathers of a race
Of birds, [1844: comma deleted] that live away,
In some cold wintry place, [1844: cold dreary wintry place,]
Far from the sun's warm ray.
And clouds perhaps are downy beds, [1844: And clouds, perhaps, are downy beds]
On which the winds repose;
Who, when they move [1844: rouse] their slumbering heads [1844: slumb'ring heads],
Shake down the feathery [1844: feath'ry] snows.
But see, my dearlings [1844: darlings], while we stayAnd here's the book version that appears in Moore's 1844 Poems:
And gaze with such [1844: fond] delight,
The fairy scene now [1844: soon] fades away,
And mocks our raptur'd sight.
And let this fleeting vision teach
A truth you soon must know —
That all the joys we here can reach, [1844: end comma deleted]
Are transient as the snow.
1844 version, transcribed below:
LINES
WRITTEN AFTER A SNOW-STORM.
COME children dear, and look around;
Behold how soft and light
The silent snow has clad the ground
In robes of purest white.
The trees seem deck'd by fairy hand,
Nor need their native green;
And every breeze appears to stand,
All hush'd, to view the scene.
You wonder how the snows were made
That dance upon the air,
As if from purer worlds they stray'd,
So lightly and so fair.
Perhaps they are the summer flowers
In northern stars that bloom,
Wafted away from icy bowers
To cheer our winter's gloom.
Perhaps they're feathers of a race
Of birds that live away,
In some cold dreary wintry place,
Far from the sun's warm ray.
And clouds, perhaps, are downy beds
On which the winds repose;
Who, when they rouse their slumb'ring heads,
Shake down the feath'ry snows.
But see, my darlings, while we stay
And gaze with fond delight,
The fairy scene soon fades away,
And mocks our raptur'd sight.
And let this fleeting vision teach
A truth you soon must know —
That all the joys we here can reach
Are transient as the snow.
--Clement C. Moore, Poems (New York: Bartlett & Welford, 1844), 80-82.Related posts:
- First printing of A Visit from St Nicholas
http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/04/first-printing-of-visit-from-st-nicholas.html
- Clement C. Moore's snow poem in the Troy Sentinel
http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2017/02/clement-c-moores-snow-poem-in-troy.html
- Lines Written after a Snow-Storm in the Providence, Rhode Island American http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2016/11/lines-written-after-snow-storm-by.html
- Harriet Butler and Sarah Sackett in Troy, 1824
https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/harriet-butler-and-sarah-sackett-in.html
- Livingston cousin T. W. C. Moore
http://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2018/12/livingston-cousin-t-w-c-moore.html
